Discover the fascinating world of investing with Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and his remarkable co-hosts. Each week, we bring you compelling conversations with legendary investors, leading economists, masterful traders, and forward-thinking thought leaders. From Trend Following and Global Macro to Geo-Politics, Commodities, Quant Investing, Crypto, and Volatility, we uncover the strategies, stories, and lessons behind their success. Gain actionable insights from industry veterans as we celebrate t ...
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Niels Kaastrup Larsen Podcasts
Top Traders Unplugged is a show that will keep you in the know about how the world's top investors are navigating todays' markets and where they think the economy is heading. Niels Kaastrup-Larsen brings these engaging and often surprising conversations to you each week, so you don't miss out when we explore their latest successes or failures, best ideas as well as other valuable insights—learn like never before by tuning into Top Traders Unplugged each week!
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GM86: Everyone’s Watching the Fed. The Real Story’s Somewhere Else. ft. Louis Vincent-Gave
59:48
59:48
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59:48Louis-Vincent Gave returns with a blunt assessment of a global order fraying at key seams. Construction is stalling. Trade policy is adrift. Capital is retreating from the U.S. And yet, markets hum along... propped up by AI euphoria and the illusion of fiscal permanence. In this conversation with Alan Dunne, Louis questions whether investors grasp …
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SI361: The Four Faces of Trend Following ft. Richard Brennan
1:26:51
1:26:51
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1:26:51Richard Brennan joins Niels for a conversation that redefines how trend following is understood. Behind the shared language lie four distinct archetypes - each built around a different purpose. Richard walks through them with clarity, then unpacks the trade-offs: static sizing vs. vol targeting, symmetry vs. asymmetry, speed vs. patience. A real-wo…
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UGO05: Volatility’s Blueprint: How Markets Really Move ft. Mandy Xu & Ed Tom
55:02
55:02
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55:02From the first futures in 1848 to today’s zero-day options, Cem Karsan, Mandy Xu, and Ed Tom chart how derivatives have moved from the market’s periphery to its center of gravity. At the core is Cboe’s new VIX decomposition tool, which disentangles moves driven by downside hedging, upside speculation, and shifts in the volatility surface. Through e…
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SI360: The Fed, the Fiction, and the Fight for Control ft. Alan Dunne
1:05:11
1:05:11
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1:05:11When official data starts serving politics, markets lose their anchor. Alan Dunne and Niels examine the quiet shift unfolding as the U.S. edges closer to emerging market behavior - firing statisticians, sidelining inconvenient numbers, and pressuring the Fed ahead of a consequential leadership reshuffle. With labor supply falling, growth stalling, …
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IL40: Why the Economy Feels Broken... Even When It’s Growing ft. Diane Coyle
56:54
56:54
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56:54What if our most trusted economic statistic is pointing us in the wrong direction? Diane Coyle joins Kevin Coldiron to explore why GDP - long treated as a proxy for progress - now obscures more than it reveals. As economies shift toward services, intangibles, and unpaid digital labor, much of today’s value creation falls outside the frame. Drawing …
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SI359: Trend Following in a World That Loves Bubbles ft. Mark Rzepczynski
1:08:42
1:08:42
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1:08:42Mark Rzepczynski joins Niels Kaastrup-Larsen for a conversation shaped by tension between surface calm and deeper dislocation. From copper’s sudden collapse to signs of stress in liquidity and leverage, they explore how market behavior is increasingly defined by fragility, not fundamentals. With Fed policy boxed in, equity optimism rising, and stab…
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GM85: What If the Real Risk Isn’t Recession — But Reinvention? ft. Steven Bell
1:07:36
1:07:36
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1:07:36Steven Bell has seen the macro machine from every angle - Treasury insider, hedge fund manager, and chief economist. In this wide-ranging conversation with Alan Dunne, he traces the quiet erosion of economic orthodoxy and why AI, not tariffs, may prove the more destabilizing force. Bell explains how Fed independence is fraying, why wage dynamics ma…
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SI358: Why the Best Trend Models Might Be the Simplest Ones ft. Tom Wrobel & Andrew Beer
1:13:29
1:13:29
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1:13:29Andrew Beer and Tom Wroble return to join Niels Kaastrup-Larsen for a timely examination of how trend following is adapting, and why some say it may be losing its edge. Tom unpacks new research showing a quiet drift toward slower models, raising the question of whether CTAs are evolving or converging. Andrew pushes back on the prevailing wisdom aro…
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TTU150: Scarcity, Security, and the Shift to Soil ft. Artem Milinchuk
1:06:04
1:06:04
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1:06:04What happens when an overlooked asset becomes essential? Artem Milinchuk returns to share how farmland, long seen as niche... is quietly stepping into the center of long-term portfolios. He and Niels discuss what’s changed since 2020: rising inflation, tighter capital, a demographic handoff reshaping land ownership, and how tech is altering both th…
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SI357: Liquidity, Leverage, and the Lie of Calm ft. Cem Karsan
1:29:58
1:29:58
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1:29:58As summer sets in, Cem Karsan joins Niels Kaastrup-Larsen to trace the contours of a market that feels calm but isn’t. What looks like low vol masks a crowded hedge fund ecosystem and a structural vol compression regime few understand. From a VIX spike driven by unexpected Call activity to the slow-motion political pressure on Powell, the signals a…
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UGO04: CNBC Legend on the Price of Losing Price ft. Rick Santelli
44:10
44:10
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44:10Rick Santelli joins Cem Karsan for a conversation that cuts through the noise. From the floor of the Cboe to the era of central bank primacy, Santelli reflects on how markets have been reshaped... not just by technology or policy, but by the loss of honest signals. They cover the Fed’s shift from restraint to control, the unintended consequences of…
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SI356: The Anatomy of a CTA Recovery ft. Katy Kaminski
1:03:48
1:03:48
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1:03:48Katy Kaminski returns to examine a moment in trend following that feels familiar... but isn’t. Drawing on new research, she and Niels explore how drawdowns resolve, why recovery is faster when markets break, and slower when they don’t, and what that asymmetry reveals about the current cycle. They unpack copper’s historic 1-day move, the role of Chi…
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ALO30: The Quiet Rewire of Portfolio Construction ft. Cian Walsh
1:04:30
1:04:30
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1:04:30Cian Walsh, Head of Hedge Funds and Private Debt at Formue, joins Alan Dunne to explore what it means to allocate capital when the macro regime, client expectations, and the structure of markets are all in flux. He explains why the 60/40 model obscures more than it reveals, how he is adapting institutional frameworks for thousands of private client…
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SI355: Drawdowns Don’t Lie, But They May Mislead ft. Alan Dunne
45:57
45:57
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45:57Markets have recovered fast - maybe too fast. Alan and Niels unpack what sits beneath the surface: a bond market brushing off record deficits, volatility draining from asset prices, and trend followers caught between sharp reversals and shrinking conviction. They explore how sentiment, structure, and speed are shaping today’s trading environment, a…
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OI17: The End of the Bull Market: What’s Next for Equities? ft. Asim Ghaffar
1:09:02
1:09:02
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1:09:02In this episode, Moritz Seibert speaks with Asim Ghaffar, the founder and CIO of AG Capital, a Boston-based macro hedge fund. Asim explains why he believes insourcing rather than outsourcing the organizational processes of running a hedge fund business is critical and how it can add long-term value to the business. He also describes why sales and b…
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SI354: Everyone’s Different. Until They’re Not ft. Rob Carver
1:13:24
1:13:24
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1:13:24With markets drifting and conviction thinning, Rob Carver joins Niels to take stock of a moment that feels suspended... not quite crisis, not quite calm. They discuss why recent rule changes around bank capital and crypto assets may carry more weight than headlines suggest, and what falling shipping volumes might be whispering about global demand. …
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GM84: What Everyone Saw, but No One Priced ft. Bob Elliott
1:15:26
1:15:26
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1:15:26Bob Elliott joins Cem Karsan and Niels Kaastrup-Larsen for a conversation about what happens when strong economic data masks a deeper structural shift. The income engine still runs, but tariffs, labor scarcity, and immigration limits are quietly rewiring the system. Inflation may not fall the way people expect. Profit margins may not hold. And capi…
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SI353: You Don’t Buy It for Returns. You Buy It Because It Works! ft. Yoav Git
1:08:30
1:08:30
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1:08:30Some of the most effective portfolio components may generate little or no return on their own. In this episode, Niels Kaastrup-Larsen and Yoav Git explore that discomfort - why allocators often overlook strategies that offer the most structural value. Through a series of new research papers, they examine how negative correlation, volatility, and ca…
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GM83: The Risk We Forgot to Price ft. Barry Eichengreen
1:01:55
1:01:55
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1:01:55Barry Eichengreen joins Alan Dunne for a clear-eyed look at a system losing its anchors. The dollar’s standing, long insulated by trust and habit, now faces a different kind of test... one shaped less by challengers abroad than by fractures at home. They explore how rising debt, political entropy, and institutional strain are converging in ways tha…
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SI352: Trend Systems Under Strain ft. Nick Baltas
1:03:38
1:03:38
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1:03:38Nick Baltas is back with Niels for a conversation that sits at the intersection of technology, uncertainty, and discipline. As AI-generated data floods the system and market reversals grow sharper, the challenge isn’t just strategy design — it’s deciding what still counts as signal. They explore how systematic managers are rethinking volatility tar…
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UGO03: This Isn’t 2008. That’s the Problem ft. Benn Eifert
45:51
45:51
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45:51Back on the Cboe floor, Cem Karsan sits down with Benn Eifert to trace the fault lines shaping today’s volatility regime. They dig into why market structure, not just macro, is driving outcomes... from the reflexive cycles of implied vol to the growing influence of structured product flows and zero-day options. With correlations breaking down and d…
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SI351: The Two Tribes of Trend ft. Richard Brennan
1:08:49
1:08:49
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1:08:49As trend followers push through one of the toughest environments in years, Rich and Niels unpack what’s actually driving the pain. They draw a sharp line between two camps in the industry - those who focus on standalone market behavior and those who manage trend as a portfolio-level phenomenon, and explain why that distinction now matters more than…
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OI16: Return Stacking: Form, Function & Friction ft. Corey Hoffstein and Adam Butler
1:06:37
1:06:37
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1:06:37Corey Hoffstein and Adam Butler joins to unpack the mechanics of stacking returns inside an ETF — not as a branding exercise, but as a way to navigate the hard constraints of scale, structure, and investor behavior. They break down how Return Stacked blends top-down replication with a bottom-up trend engine, why most investors misunderstand what re…
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SI350: Why All Roads Lead to Higher Yields ft. Alan Dunne
1:04:55
1:04:55
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1:04:55Why are markets still priced as if the old world is coming back? Alan Dunne and Niels Kaastrup-Larsen examine the case for structurally higher yields — not as a risk, but as the regime. Drawing from Alan’s recent writing, they trace how debt levels, policy incentives, and investor complacency have converged into a feedback loop that central banks m…
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IL39: Is Trump Making Europe Great Again? ft. Koen De Leus & Philippe Gijsels
55:52
55:52
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55:52We're diving deep into some serious discussions about the shifting dynamics in Europe, particularly how the political landscape, especially with Trump's influence, is shaking things up. Economists Koen De Leus & Philippe Gijsels who authored a compelling book on the New World Economy, argue that Trump's policies might actually be a wake-up call for…
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